Laurier Lazaridis Hall

School of Business and Economics

Teaming has become more commonplace in recent years as an alternative way of servicing a client’s needs and bringing strengths of different firms together to better deliver a project. DTAL and DSAI first teamed in 2007 on a project for the City of Kitchener and teamed again on this project for Laurier, where DTAL was involved in every stage of the project from Pre-Design through to the end of Construction Administration.

The $73 million dollar Lazaridis Hall will be a signature building for Laurier and the City of Waterloo as Laurier develops its first site across University Avenue from their main campus and builds the latest in what has been a string of new business schools built across the country. The 20,450sm facility will house the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics and the Department of Mathematics in this state of the art facility.

The building features a 1,000 seat Auditorium and a large range of teaching spaces from a 300-seat lecture hall, case-study classrooms, two active learning classrooms, a number of 150-seat and 75-seat classrooms, and a leading edge financial lab with Bloomberg terminals. The Math department will also have three math labs as well as faculty and administrative space. The main Auditorium will become the new home to Convocation for the University and will be rented out to interested groups for leading events.

Lazaridis Hall is designed for Silver LEED certification, with a focus on environmentally sustainable features. Forestry Stewardship Certified (FSW) building products will be used whenever possible. An underground cistern will capture rainwater off the roof for use as greywater throughout the building. High efficiency lighting and an effective use of natural light will help conserve energy. All lights have occupancy sensors, automatically turning on or off as people enter or leave a room.

The chilled beam heating and cooling system will also adjust automatically, turning off and recycling air when no one is within the area. This cost-effective, energy-efficient system will also be adapted in an especially efficient manner for the auditorium. The heating and cooling will come from under the auditorium seats, ensuring that students and guests are surrounded by comfortable temperatures but energy is not wasted in the broad expanse of air flowing above the crowd. The tall glass surrounding the main entrance will have a bird-friendly application, with special markings to warn birds of its solid structure.

A solar-powered carport is on the site with electric charging capacity for cars, trucks and scooters. The roof will be ready to be outfitted with solar panels, pending funding, which would be placed on the east portion of the building, running north to south.’ (WLU Environmental Features)